The virtual disappearance of female country music stars on American radio is a dilemma that has now stretched out for nearly half a decade. Despite the efforts of many well-meaning taste makers in both the media and the industry to make sense of the problem and solve it, nothing so far has significantly penetrated the male blockade dominating country radio. When you take away Taylor Swift, Miranda Lambert, and Carrie Underwood, there are no other female country stars who have received any significant chart success with songs since 2010.

Now the senior director of music programming at SiriusXM is looking to try and do something about the problem and hopefully create interest around some of country music’s undiscovered and worthy female talent. SiriusXM’s John Marks has launched a new feature on the satellite radio station’s major mainstream channel The Highway called Fresh Female Voices that three times an hour will feature female artists from both the up-and-coming ranks of the mainstream, and the independent music world. The feature will run all this week while John Marks monitors sales data and social network chatter to see if the program is having a significant impact and which female stars resonate the most.

Female artists who’ve been mentioned as part of the program include Brandy Clark, Sunny Sweeney, First Aid Kit, The Pistol Annies’ Angaleena Presley, Kelleigh Bannen, and Leah Turner. Fresh Female Voices will add an estimated 200 additional spins for female country acts beyond the coverage The Highway regularly gives to the women of country.

First Aid Kit

Interestingly, it was a similar John Marks program that is given credit to the rise of Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise”, and songs from Chase Rice and Cole Swindell before they were signed to labels. Marks hopes a similar fate awaits the ladies he’s looking to feature.

“It’s a fan question and an industry question that everyone is asking right now,” John Marks says. “Where is the female talent in country music? With ‘Fresh Female Voices,’ we will be introducing our national audience to a wide variety of female talent that is out there right now working hard and trying to connect with fans. We hope to be a conduit by exposing a wide variety of types and styles of country music – while spotlighting up and coming female country music talent.”

“We’re pulling in a wide swath of female talent to gather up what the listeners will respond to,” Marks tells Brian Mansfield of USA Today about the program. “For me, it’s turning into a quest to find the one that finally rings the bell for the country consumer.”

Marks also says the problem isn’t male listeners dominating the country marketplace, it is female listeners not responding to female talent. “The females typically lead in not liking female talent,” he says. “The trick is going to be how you get the females to like the females.”

Fresh Female Voices marks one of the first programs specifically targeting the country listening audience on radio to try to solve country’s female problem, and one that can have a national impact because of the subscription service’s reach.

34 Comments

His comment about female listeners not liking songs by women is a much bigger issue here than has been talked about. Look at any of the various call out research services and you seem much higher dislike/strong dislike for all the big female stars whether it is Lambert, Underwood or Swift when she was targeting country radio they all had very high negatives and this was not just a bunch of Neanderthal bro loving men responding. The women fans have been eating up the FGL, Luke Bryan crap just as much if not more than the men.

But I strongly support this effort and hope in can break through at least somebody new.

Country radio people can keep trying to pin the struggles of newbie female acts on female fans, but it’s simply not backed up by callout data on Callout America, CMM, and other sources. I’m going to refer back to a set of tweets I made in early March, breaking down the Callout America results for the 35 current country songs it had tested that week. Out of those 35 songs, 3 were from female acts.

The Male 18-34 demo t10 was pretty much wall to wall male bro country. The Female 18-34 demo’s t10 had some bro country, but also some pop/romantic tunes, and 1 of the 3 solo female songs being tested. The Female 35-54 demo’s t10 had 2 of the 3 solo female songs being tested. Even the Male 35-54 demo’s t10 included 1 of the 3 solo female songs being tested.

In early February, 6 of Callout America’s 35 tested songs included a female lead or co-lead. The highest ranked female lead/co-lead song in the Male 18-34 demo was at #17. Compare that to the highest ranked female lead/co-lead in the Female 18-34 demo being #5 and #7.

Last September, Women 25-44 ranked 4 out of the 8 songs with a female lead/co-lead tested by Callout America in their t20. I could go on. But it’s been pretty clear for some time that it’s the male 18-34 demo coming over from rock radio that’s creating a drag on the callout scores for female acts. Sure, some females may show a preference for male voices, but the numbers show that the female demo in general is plenty supportive of female voices.

I also posted numerous quotes (from Eric Church and from songwriters Craig Wiseman and Shane Minor) here about how the current bro trend is really being driven by males being siphoned from rock radio. If they’re rock radio listeners, they’re not used to hearing many female voices and not likely to score them high.

I did a data-driven writeup here that explored how solo male acts and solo female acts supported by Music Row’s biggest labels who first charted at country radio since 2008 have done. 33% of solo females first charting at country since 2008 (9 of 27) achieved a t20 hit, compared to 58% (23 of 40, or 22 of 39 not counting Sam Hunt) of the solo males. More stark: 84% of solo males who charted their 1st t20 country hit since 2008 scored a 2nd t20 hit since then, compared to 0% of solo females. That points to a systemic problem.

Corporate country radio has gone so hard after the dudebro market at the expense of female acts and fans who respond to them that it’s going to take a major corporate commitment to get female voices back on country radio. I’m glad SiriusXM’s John Marks is making an attempt this week. The Highway channel’s been much better in general about supporting solo female acts thanks to its subscription-based model (as opposed to terrestrial radio’s ad-based model), but even then, they haven’t graduated any newbie solo female to sustained high rotation. Here’s hoping that happens and it translates over to terrestrial radio, where Clear Channel just announced its 4th consecutive solo country male to receive On The Verge acceleration up the charts.

I think everybody agrees that the major factor in many of the issues is the fact that rack radio as it has been is just dead and many of those listeners have gravitated to country radio. Then throw in the chasing of younger listeners and you have a lethal mix that has played a part in the absence of women getting airplay. But the younger female are also going this way as your tweet showed with only one female in that top ten and maybe the others were less bro filled they were still men. And I know purely anecdotally I know some of the female country radio listeners in my life have irrational hatreds for either Miranda or Carrie or whatever and they just love Luke Bryan or Jason Aldean. To deny this is pure folly in my opinion.

I think women should be getting much more airplay and hell if I had my way Lindi Ortega would be a huge star and ‘Tin Star’ would have been played millions of times on country radio but the fact is the audience isn’t there right now and until something changes I have hard time seeing this improving greatly.

I think we can all agree that saying “women don’t want to listen to women” is a gross oversimplification of the issue, while at the same time it is hard to deny that women are at least part of the problem.

It will be interesting to see how the data responds to the recent anti Bro-Country class of female songs like “Somethin’ Bad” and “Girl In A Country Song” in the long run.

Yeah you’re right that women listeners aren’t the entire problem. Also look at the first tweet of hers on young females favorites and if they want more Rascal Flatts and Dan and Shay then count me out. Where she is absolutely correct is the lack of followup success for new females which is horrible and that seems to point to a more systemic problem.

Frankly, it appears that radio has the same formula with females as they do with the alcohol themed songs where they only allow a couple in rotation at a time and if the timing is wrong then tough luck for the unlucky act.

I’m not here to defend liking Rascal Flatts or Dan+Shay. I honestly can’t defend a lot of the songs included in these surveys, but they were in the set being tested because the songs were in the t30 of the mainstream radio charts at the time, or looked to be headed t30. That also raises the point that these surveys are limited to songs that have already advanced to a certain point – a lot of solo female singles don’t get high enough to even make these surveys.

Rascal Flatts’s Rewind, Dan+Shay’s 19 You+Me, both those songs lean romantic pop – the point of view is different than the typical party hard bro country song. The quality of the songs may or may not be better, but that’s a separate issue (an important issue, but a separate issue). My point is that the Callout America t10s by demo show a diversity of viewpoint/sound (from romance to some backwoods partying to a female escaping an unsatisfying marriage) in every demo but the male 18-34 demo. Yes, there was only 1 solo female in the female 18-34 demo t10 in those linked tweets, but there were only 3 solo females being tested in the 1st place – not a bad percentage to land 1 in the t10. And that was a 1 week snapshot anyway, other weeks (including the current week in the Mediabase sample, which is diffferent from the Callout America sample) show more support for female voices among the female 18-34 demo.

Mainstream country music’s been trending away from a broad range of topics and perspectives to a very narrow one, and that’s gone hand in hand with a lot of newbie female acts being shut out. Obviously, solving the diversity issue won’t necessarily solve mainstream country’s quality issue, but I don’t think the quality issue can be solved without solving the diversity issue.

The subject matter of mainstream country songs is something that I have mentioned on this site a number of times and is I think a bigger issue than even the sound of the music. I agree with you more than disagree but I just bristle at the idea that somehow female listeners have some more pure insight that should be respected more than other demos. Personally I don’t want to hear some reality show female who was a rock singer until 5 minutes ago just because she is female anymore than I want to hear an AC song by Dan and Shay or Hunter Hayes or a pathetic rock wannabe song by Brantley Gilbert.

I guess what I’m saying is diversity just for diversities sake is really no better than what we have today. The labels need to support and nurture there female acts and not pander by putting so many resources behind acts like Cassadee Pope or Danielle Bradbery that have frankly not earned it. I want quality female artists not just a female to check a box. Give me acts like Sunny Sweeney who had a top ten hit and worked for it and lived it. Stop with the obsession with short term gain and build some careers. Reba didn’t have a #1 until almost ten years after her chart debut.

I’ll definitely be interested to see the callout on Maddie & Tae’s Girl In A Country Song. The 1st wave should be coming in within the next 2 weeks, though I’ll probably wait a few weeks to see how it’s trending. And yes, I completely agree that women are part of the problem, I’m just tired of corporate types trying to pin the issue wholesale on female fans. It’s a dated argument.

The Miranda/Carrie duet is testing very well at Callout America, but that’s not too surprising in the sense that Miranda & Carrie are already well accepted at the format. Somethin’ Bad is #1 among Females 18-34 and it’s actually #6 among Males 18-34 (the next highest ranked song with a female lead in that demo is Lady A’s Bartender at #17). Lady A’s Bartender is #2 among Females 18-34.

Among Males 25-34, there is not a single female voice in the t10 unless you count Faith Hill’s harmony on the #10 song, Meanwhile Back At Mama’s. The highest rank song with a female lead is at #12 (Lady A’s Bartender).

Noteworthy: Kacey Musgraves’s Keep It To Yourself, which is yet to make t30, is t20 among younger females on both Callout America and the Mediabase callout service. But KITY is the #31 song for younger males out of 31 songs on the Mediabase callout survey, and #35 out of 35 songs tested for Males 18-34 at Callout America. I think that lends support to the hypothesis that younger males are at country radio for the rockers and the rockers only.

Wow! Women get a whole week to see if they can sell themselves?!?
Radical indeed.

Btw, whoever programs the HD2 channel of WUSN Chicago has a sense of humor:
Not unusual to Stripes (where Brandy doesn’t pull the trigger) followed by Looking Back Now (where Maggie pulls it twice).

Speaking of which, it’s also not unusual to hear 4 or 5 females in a row on this channel. Would sure love to know who the programmer is, but this shadow station isn’t even mentioned on their website.

Lastly, it seems there’s been a rash of new releases in the last week or two. I’m hearing new Sara Evans, Craig Morgan, Gary Allan, Lindsay Ell, and others, much of it sounding good and replacing the usual crap. Wondering if HD2 is actually a streaming service for station managers/program directors to hear “songs for their consideration”? Who owns “The Wolf”, and who would listen to WUSN’s Top 20 with commercials and dj’s when this is on?

Maybe it’s my desire to want to be optimistic about this program, but the week-only aspect of it doesn’t bother me too much. Reading the comments from John Marks, it appears to be his plan to use this week to help aggregate data on these artists to see how to move forward from here, whether that is extending the program, whether in its present incarnation or some other, or picking out specific females that did well and then featuring them more on SiriusXM in the future.

I can tell you, just today I have seen some unusual traffic spikes on certain artists that very well may be tied to this program. I’ve always believe an act like First Aid Kit would explode on radio (much more than Kacey Musgraves, for example) if only given a chance. Brandy Clark and some others might be a little harder sell to the mainstream.

Saw this in an update from Sunny Sweeney this morning and I’m pretty excited about it. I’m a female fan and I enjoy listening to female artists as much as males. I guess that’s because I don’t choose my music based on sex appeal instead of, you know, what the music actually sounds like.

I think Sunny Sweeney and Kacey Musgraves are poised to be big female country stars. Sunny has a fantastic country voice and a funny, down to earth personality that’s very likeable. Kacey is this mix of modern and vintage that just works perfectly. She’s one of a kind. I’d also love to see Ashley Monroe, Kellie Pickler and Brandy Clark get a push from this. And, kind of an aside, but I’d love to hear LeAnn Rimes back on the radio. Her public persona isn’t exactly stellar, but man her voice is a national treasure that needs to be heard.

Interesting, this lack of female entertainers on country radio . Interesting to me , personally , because I get my music from so many places other than radio ( satellite , You tube , itunes etc…and there are SO MANY great female writers/singers / duos / bands with female lead vocalists out there that I hadn’t really noticed the lack of their presence on commercial radio. In fact , most of what I listen to are female artists ….Holly Williams , Brandy Clark , Lee Ann Womack ,, Carrie Underwood , Lee Ann Rimes ,Church Sisters , Kasey Chambers , Miranda Lambert , Gretchen Peters , Matraca Berg ( You and Tequila writer ) Lori McKenna, Sean Colvin , Mary Chapin Carpenter , Alison Kraus , Sierra Hull , Della Mae , Kacey Musgraves ,Rhonda Vincent , Erin Enderlin ( Monday Morning Church writer ), Patty Loveless , Sara Evans , Emmy -Lou , Patty Griffin, Dixie Chicks and on and on . Yes it is tragic they don’t get more mainstream attention . But they are all out there and available /accessible and , in my opinion , the females are writing/co-writing and recording THE BEST MATERIAL .. no matter the genre . Certainly the best country material .

‘they don’t get mainstream attention. But they are all out there and available/accessible’

But the thing is as great as many of those you listed are the vast majority of people haven’t heard of them. So it is very important for them to get more exposure which allows them to make a more consistent living through recording and especially touring.

So yeah, they are all available to those of us hardcore fans but if you’ve never heard of them then…

Here I must thank this website for turning me on to Gillian Welch. I didn’t really expect to like her, frankly, as I expected some “hipster” or PC factor to repel me. I was most pleasantly surprised. The music is so well done and her voice and stylization so compelling, that whatever of those factors may be there, just go by the wayside.

I have wondered if people anymore really have the breadth of experiences, growing up, that they used to have, to even draw upon in order to have more variegation of topic matter in country music. Plus the artists seem to get younger and younger, which isn’t conducive to breadth or depth of experience.

Many past artists had other careers before making a mark, or even a one-hit wonder (i.e. Convoy-driving a truck), in the music business.

Of course, this could once again be my old-fogey affliction, and I do grant that there are still exceptions, but they seem to me to be just that, exceptions, and they’re few and far between, farther and fewer than ever before.

Melanie . You make some extremely relevant observations . Observations which , I believe , account for the absence of substance in so much contemporary ‘radio’ music .
Young writers/entertainers have such little experience to draw from that by default the songs will be somewhat immature , one dimensional , trite and shallow, in most cases . This is why the labels team them with a veteran writer to “give them direction” ..which seems to mean ‘ make them sound like everything else on the radio ‘ but NOT so that they will appeal to a more mature listener . These ‘kids’ are singing for ‘kids ‘ and its ‘kids’ who support it through downloads and concerts .Its “Kid -Country” now . There’s no way a 15/16 year old girl could possibly relate to a song about a guy battling the bottle or losing his job or a mom giving birth to her first child ..or leaving her abusive husband . And there’s no audience left tuning in to modern radio who’d appreciate and/or relate to that kind of emotional scenario in song . The horse is outa the barn . There are unlimited places to find mature songs for big people . Radio isn’t one of them .

You’re absolutely right, re radio. It’s a shame, really, that adults who love country have to resort to mining for it. I’m a little long in the tooth to go to “events” these days, so I guess it’s YT, iTunes, and such for me.

Speaking of topics-will there ever again be another classic train song, formerly a mainstay of country music? Everything is self-referential in some way these days.

I know Glen Campbell was a bit “pop” for country, but he wrote some of the best country lyrics ever, at least in topic matter. Songs about linemen in Witchita, the everyday housewife, Gentle On My Mind (what a great line), Galveston (so catchy). The gospel influence is long gone from country, when its founders had no problem seamlessly and with sincerity incorporating it into their catalogue between the honky-tonk or tear jerkers.

The fantastic, distinctive voices-not necessarily smooth or polished, but with a SOUND (yes, in capitol letters), like Jean Shepard’s twangy Okie, somewhat nasally voice, just overflowing with authenticity, or Jimmie Rodger’s blues-inflected rural Mississippi accent (I’m still fascinated that he had a hit with a song about tuberculosis, and without making a “cause” or “message song” out of it).

I also just saw a notification that Fayssoux Starling has a new record coming out in early September. A beautiful voice, a talented and mature songwriter, and she covers Merle Haggard, Tom T. Hall and Jim Lauderdale songs on this album.

I think that the upside of the ‘dumbing down’ of radio and broadcast television is that its arguably helped to create an environment where there ARE so many ‘mining ‘ options available to entertainment consumers. We are NOT at the mercy of the powers that be if we choose not to be . In the past , if we found entertainment boring or otherwise irrelevant to our station in life and our experience, our only recourse was to turn it off . Most of us today have access to cable TV and internet. An hour or so browsing the music sites is akin to browsing in a record store and stumbling upon a few musical gems . Television has bounced back miraculously with the offerings of cable programming . Here in our area , our basic cable premiums include a selection of nearly 25 satellite music stations and many many music programs offering concert and video options not offered by mainstream outlets…all commercial free and all playing music that would never be found on commercial radio . I listen to these stations frequently as a guide to what’s out there . Yes …as someone pointed out in another thread , it may be harder for artists with less mainstream appeal to find the exposure they’d find on commercial radio ..however they DO have these options that did not exist at all several years ago where they could have been ASSURED of NO exposure if they didn’t fit the mold . Over the past several evenings alone I’ve watched Katy Perry and Kacey Musgraves in concert together , a bluegrass family reunion concert and listened to Randy Travis’ entire new album available to listen free on his website . I’m in music heaven .
And I’m supporting each one of these options with my cable premiums , my internet premiums , sharing my finds with friends , purchasing music from iTunes , and going to their shows. Surely enough people taking advantage of these various ways of accessing and supporting the options will ensure their long term existence and their exposure in the way that commercial radio currently does for trendy ‘flavour of the week’ acts . And with a little luck ‘dumbing -down’ will bottom out and force many more to seek out the options already available .

ScottyJ: I agree with you more than disagree but I just bristle at the idea that somehow female listeners have some more pure insight that should be respected more than other demos.

That’s not an idea I’m advancing. I even noted that 35+ male demo had an interest in more diversity than the 18-34 demo. The reason I’ve honed in on the male 18-34 demo is the callout data that shows a clear trend towards uniformity of taste within it, with more uniformity than any other demo. To the extent I’ve discussed diversity in the context of the female demo, it’s mainly to refute this fiction propagated by certain corporate types that the format’s current lack of artist and thematic diversity should be laid at the feet of female fans.

ScottyJ: I guess what I”™m saying is diversity just for diversities sake is really no better than what we have today.

I’m not arguing for that either. I’m arguing that the lack of diversity – the narrowing playlists, the narrowing topics for songs accepted at mainstream country radio, is a systemic & structural problem that is contributing to the quality issues at mainstream country radio. As I said, improving diversity won’t fix the quality issue on its own but I don’t believe the quality issue can be fixed without improving the systemic impediments to diversity first.

What are those systemic impediments? Things like programming country radio for the short-term (commuter) listener to maximizing cumulative listeners per their AQL (average quarter-hour listeners) instead of people who would listen for hours (maximizing the TSL, or time spent listening). Favoring the short-term listener is what has resulted in the pop-style programming of doubling or nearly doubling the spins per week for top songs compared to 5-10 years ago. Those extra spins for the top songs are taken away from newer songs from less established acts, making it harder to break through and achieve the critical mass needed to register with listeners. Programming for the short-term listener has also really put a premium on familiarity, and so the songs that test best out of the gate are often the ones that sound like everything else out there. That adversely affects the chances of female voices, the chances of traditional sounding songs, and also the chances of songs that don’t fit the dominant mood (partying). The short time horizon given for acts to develop at country radio, as you pointed out, is also a systemic issue (one that Mike Dungan actually pointed to when he talked about developing Kacey Musgraves over time).

I am definitely *not* advocating for bulking up the female quotient at the format at all costs. I’ve even pointed out elsewhere that the trend of country radio taking on females with fanbases from other formats does nothing to address the fundamental problem that country radio isn’t participating in the development of country female careers the way it is the development of male careers in the genre.

Fair enough. Like I said I agree with you for the most part and I definitely agree with you on the tightening playlists being a major issue with breaking new artists whether male, female or group. Seeing the spin number drop precipitously after the top 15-20 on the charts is pretty damning.

And the Jeanette McCurdy comments were very troubling and will increase the scrutiny on every act trying to ‘go country’ from here on out.

Growing artists is hard and takes time and in our society as a whole everybody wants things now, now, now and that’s not always how it works.